(RePost from last Winter @ Project WARM)
I met a dude named Steve tonight.
He is 21, homeless, and came in off the street for warmth and a place to sleep at a local outreach center.
He was baked out of his mind...(That's code for high on marijuana.)
We talked about basketball, art, hip hop, and eventually Jesus and the Bible.
Steve said he found fulfillment in girls, alcohol, and drugs. His current goal was to get into the mental institution because they had free ice cream, TV, and it was a great place to pick up "the ladies" digits.
I asked Steve if he knew anyone who was perfect. He claimed that He was perfect.
He claimed that living on the streets helped teach Him not to judge people."People are for the most part, good at heart..." He claimed.He said he didn't buy what the Bible had to say about not inheriting God's kingdom as drunkards, swindlers, and sexually immoral.
Yet in all the confidence shown in explaining His thoughts and immorality, I saw the emptiness that He feels and lives with everyday...As I shared with Steve, he time and time again leaked out that the life He was living was not all he made it out to seem.
Steve is searching.
I'm no different than Steve. God in His mercy spared me from the road that Steve has traveled down, but our hearts are the same apart from Jesus.
As I shared with Steve tonight, though he claimed to be perfect, I am far from it, and it's only by the perfect, sinless life of Jesus that a price was paid in full that all might come to the Father through Christ alone. More important than any of our ability to stop smoking dope, or getting drunk, or sleeping around, or even getting angry, is the right understanding that God is Holy and I fall short of that holiness...The realization that I don't have it all together, and the surrender and belief in Christ's perfect life crucified in my place so I might have life is the only thing the will leave an empty life satisfied.
With Christ, immorality loses it's taste more and more.
Without Christ, the searching never stops; The void is never filled; The road will always lead to destruction.
It's hard to think that anything I may have said tonight got past Steve's glazed over pupils.
But I take away these thoughts:
- I praise the Lord for His undeserved grace that saved my sinful soul from searching and searching the world for nothing that will satisfy.
- I have faith in God that He can take a guy like Steve, crush His heart of stone, and bring Him to His kingdom. I believe the Gospel can do that for anyone.
- Sin leads to some of the most unimaginable places, lifestyles, and tragic affairs; it always disappoints, but will keep you looking further and further down it's road.
- Even the most prideful, sin-infested facade can be softened when we show the love and hope of Jesus.
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify their Father who is in heaven.